1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to asset classification systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Computer system assets are classified for a variety of reasons. Commonly, an asset is classified based upon the asset's importance to an organization. For example, if an asset is essential to an organization's operations, the asset is given a high asset classification.
Asset classifications are used for a variety of purposes. For example, asset classifications are used in prioritization of security incidents. Generally, an asset that has a high asset classification will be given priority over an asset that has a low asset classification in prioritizing responses to security incidents of the same magnitude.
Commonly, security personnel are tasked with classifying assets. However, determining whether an asset is important to an organization is often difficult. In addition, manually entering the asset classification information is a time-consuming task. Further, an asset's importance to an organization is dynamic and frequently changes over time. Thus, security personnel should periodically review all of the assets of an organization and repeatedly determine the importance of each asset. However, asset classification is generally given a low priority for security personnel with the result being that the asset classifications are frequently outdated, inaccurate and relatively meaningless.